Water handling company first to buy into Grainery development in north Greeley

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A California-based water handling company is the first to tap into the a long-planned development in north Greeley.

Rain For Rent, a subsidiary of Western Oilfields Supply Co., has purchased a 25-acre plot of land on AA Street in north Greeley for $1.75 million to house a second office in Weld County.

It’s the first of what could be many industrial users in about a 100-plus acre portion of the Grainery development.

The Grainery is a planned 600-plus acre residential, commercial and industrial development at the former Monfort feedlots and headquarters north of Greeley.

“It’s a precursor of things to come,” said Mark Bradley, an agent with Realtec Commercial Real Estate Services in Greeley, of the sale. “This was the first ground we could make available. We’re still working through plans on the rest of the property, so we’re not quite ready to sell industrial lots of the remainder.”

The 25-acre site, which is about a quarter-mile west of U.S. 85, technically is still in Weld County, and not yet annexed into the city of Greeley, Bradley explained. It is the former hub of Monfort Meatpacking’s trucking division before it sold and eventually became JBS.

The balance of the Grainery development has been annexed into Greeley, and still must be platted for the planned developments.

“We were able to carve this off for them,” Bradley said.

Rain For Rent, a private California company in business for 76 years, has been in Fort Lupton for about 20 years, offering several industries options for water handling needs, be it stream diversion, to pumping, to cleaning wastewater, to name a few.

Area manager Myles Dockter said Rain For Rent not only works with the oil and gas industry, but with municipalities and food manufacturing, such as the cheese plant and meatpacking industries. It employs about 250 workers in Weld County now.

“Every industry out there has some kind of water, via their waste stream or manufacturing process and that’s where we come in, whether it be temporary storage, or cleaning it up so they can discharge it,” Dockter said. A large portion of the company’s business in Greeley will be oil and gas, he said.

The company has been under contract on the land since last July, and moved into the lot in September.

Dockter said there are plans for redevelopment on the property, and potentially razing some buildings to build anew. He wouldn’t speculate on cost, or actual plans for the property. He said there are no firm timelines for developing the lot.

He said a new building will be built to house about seven offices and serve as hub for the company’s employees who work in the field. He said the company will likely bump up employment by about 25 percent.

He said the Greeley site will be a second shop and office for the company, which will remain in Fort Lupton.

“We outgrew our current facility. We’ll still keep this office, as we’re servicing a lot of the Denver industrial market and a lot of oil and gas fields down in this area,” Dockter said.

Bradley said interest continues on the rest of the Grainery development, but it will be a while before the balance of 80-acre industrial portion is finished with planning issues with the city of Greeley.

That may not fit into the time frame of companies out there looking for good industrial space today.

Bradley said if the Grainery can’t accommodate users now, it will soon.

“If you look at how things have played out in other shale fields, I think we’re looking at a ten-year horizon of needs,” Bradley said.